Snowblowing apparatus of various kinds are well known in the prior art. Many of these structures having a housing unit that include a snow inlet portal, a rotating blade unit disposed within the housing unit for gathering snow and for discharging it, a power unit for powering the blade unit, and a discharge unit for directing the discharged snow as desired.
Various problems have arisen with respect to the manufacture, use and maintenance of these prior art structures. In general, the efficiencies of prior art snowblowers are not good. Generally, a fairly substantial power unit must be provided to obtain satisfactory operation, and this problem becomes particularly critical as the snow to be removed increases in depth. In addition, the manufacture of suitable blade units does not always proceed in a relatively simple or efficient fashion. Further, if a prior art blade unit breaks or otherwise becomes defective, repairing or changing the blade unit can be difficult. Even the housing units for prior art structures are less than adequately designed, in that the housing structures generally begin to shove snow ahead before the blade unit can act upon it. And further because of long flight augers needed to bring snow into the discharge area the friction causes wasted power, thereby decreasing the efficiency of the unit.
There therefore exists a need for an improved snowblower apparatus that will be capable of removing even deeply piled snow without requiring a large power unit. Such a snowblower should ideally have a blade unit that can be simply constructed and replaced, and that will be durable and efficient in use and provide effective snow removal capabilities.